The number of practicing architects in the U.S. is on the rise, albeit slightly, according to the 2015 Survey of Architectural Registration Boards released today by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). The 2015 count of 110,168 architects is a 2 percent increase from 2014, which indicates healthy growth for the profession. And the number of licensed architects should continue to grow, as the number of individuals either taking the Architect Registration Exam, reporting experience hours, or both, reached a high last year at 41,500, according to the survey.
“While there are a variety of factors that contribute to the health of the profession, these two trends point to a bright future,” said NCARB CEO Michael Armstrong in a press release. “As a record number of candidates work toward licensure, NCARB will continue to ensure our programs remain modern and inclusive, yet rigorous.”
The data offers a sneak peek at the council’s annual “NCARB by the Numbers” report, which will be released in July and represents data on resident and reciprocal licenses from the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia as well as Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, from January to December 2015.
Additionally, the architects surveyed in the 2015 report collectively held 122,579 out-of-state, or reciprocal, licenses, up 3 percent from 2014, indicating their expanding business prospects across state lines as the economy improves.
Below, we rank the U.S. states and related territories (minus the U.S. Virgin Islands) surveyed by NCARB by year-over-year change in the total number of resident and reciprocal licenses from 2014 to 2015. The 2015 figure is listed, followed by the percent change:
- Arkansas | 1,726 | 28%
- Arizona | 5,833 | 19%
- Michigan | 6,718 | 18%
- Minnesota | 3,676 | 15%
- West Virginia | 1,239 | 13%
- Rhode Island | 1,588 | 12%
- Wisconsin | 4,713 | 11%
- Hawaii | 2,498 | 10%
- Oregon | 3,285 | 9%
- Delaware | 1,728 | 9%
- North Carolina | 5,662 | 8%
- Illinois | 9,790 | 8%
- Alaska | 612 | 8%
- Massachusetts | 7,045 | 5%
- Vermont | 1,199 | 5%
- Louisiana | 3,416 | 5%
- Nebraska | 1,867 | 5%
- Connecticut | 4,376 | 4%
- Montana | 1,428 |4%
- District of Columbia | 3,345 | 4%
- Alabama | 2,845 | 4%
- New Hampshire | 1,888 | 4%
- Puerto Rico | 682 | 3%
- New York | 17,372 | 3%
- Utah | 2,452 | 3%
- Texas | 13,306 | 3%
- Maine | 1,546 | 3%
- Kansas | 2,719 | 3%
- South Dakota | 853 | 3%
- Missouri | 5,260 | 3%
- Virginia | 7,223 | 2%
- Pennsylvania | 7,962 | 1%
- Tennessee | 3,836 | 1%
- Washington | 6,322 | 1%
- South Carolina | 3,882 | 1%
- Kentucky | 2,538 | 1%
- Oklahoma | 2,235 | 0%
- Florida | 9,871 | 0%
- North Dakota | 1,149 | 0%
- Georgia | 5,304 | -1%
- Iowa | 1,951 | -1%
- California | 20,293 | -1%
- Idaho | 1,631 | -2%
- Wyoming | 1,147 | -3%
- Colorado | 6,481 | -3%
- Guam | 108 | -4%
- New Mexico | 2,009 | -4%
- Nevada | 2,790 | -4%
- Ohio | 6,030 | -4%
- Mississippi | 1,672 | -5%
- Indiana | 3,083 | -6%
- New Jersey | 7,509 | -7%
- Maryland | 5,943 | -8%
